The seizure was a bright spot in Dr. Lai's otherwise dark frame of mind; Mrs. Xin had started spending a lot of time in the computer lab with Mr. Chen. At first Tubby thought they were simply using it for thrills, but when she went down with Daphne to download a homework assignment, she found them there with three other men about Mr. Chen's age, all with resident's badges. Their names were Mr. Adderly, Dr. Gaynor, and Dr. Ramachandran. It soon became clear that they shared Mr. Chen's affliction. Mr. Chen himself seemed muted somewhat by the seizure—his motions less crisp, his words less clear.

Mrs. Xin and Mr. Chen were working on face recognition. They called Mr. Chen's program Kanma, which Mrs. Xin pronounced "are you looking?" and Mr. Chen pronounced "see horses." They tried it out on Daphne, but she came up as Mr. Chen's niece Erica. Tubby was mistaken for Marietta, the receptionist. "It's pretty good at figuring out people's sex, at least," said Mr. Chen.

"Can't you do that yourself?" asked Daphne, saving Tubby the trouble.

"Since when were you any good with computers?" said Tubby, the next time she saw Mrs. Xin alone.

"I've been studying," said Mrs. Xin.

"Studying Mr. Chen's little brother," said Tubby.

Mrs. Xin shrugged. "Jim's little brother likes other little brothers, actually. But by the time I figured that out, I'd already learned Python and C."

She wasn't quite holding back a grin. Tubby gave her best displeased-teacher look.

"Jim has these didactics you can download," said Mrs. Xin. "You can implant them with a little hypnotherapy course or a normal NM port. I have an NM port left over from a bit of depression in my forties." Mrs. Xin pushed the soft grey hair up from the bone just above and behind her left earlobe, revealing a rectangular metal patch about a half-inch wide and half as high. "So you can study while you dream. Jim calls it the dreamgame." She shrugged a bit. "Programming is a snap to learn. Jim says math is harder, but that's his specialty anyway. I just like making it work with the phone."

"Are all the little boys down there programming computers?" Tubby asked.

"Or looking at molecules, or blueprints of buildings. They're all rocket scientists. Dr. Gaynor reads the same paper over and over again." Mrs. Xin chuckled. "He's the only one who doesn't use Kanma. He says he wants to learn to work with his 'naked brain.' Do you know what I said to that?"

"If you tell me, I'll kill you," Tubby said.